Alot of Questions

[doconeill]

Here are all the price differences after checking that deal with 3 different hotel prices...

Value Resorts (Pop)
Flights, hotel, tickets (no dining plan), $150 spending money
£1267pp

Moderate Resort (Coronado Springs)
Flights, hotel, tickets, QSDDP, $150 spending money
£1678pp

Deluxe Resort (Animal Kingdom Lodge)
Flights, hotel, tickets, Normal DDP, $150 spending money
£2517pp


And here is a print screen of the offer I was using: http://i.imgur.com/QXPMJ.png

I think the best option would be for the moderate resort, QSDDP, and 5 or 6 table service meals throughout the stay, does that sound about right?

For how many days? If it's 14 days and you only want that many TS meals, then it sounds fine. If it's for 7 days, and you can "upgrade" your dining plan (you many need to call about that if it is available), it may be better to upgrade to the DDP at whatever the cost difference is, since you'd be having a TS per day roughly.

When I last weighed between getting the DDP vs. not (I didn't consider the QSDP, as it wasn't effective for us with the full DDP not being much more - it was around a $10 difference per person then), I actually went to available menus online, chose the meals, figured out the costs, etc. and found that the DDP would have been much more expensive compared to the meals I typically would have gotten, especially when we would not have normally done a TS each day. But if you DO do a lot of TS meals, it can be easily worth it.

I would reconsider getting the DDP on a shorter trip, but not likely on a longer one. We're satisfied with days of just QS, or actually utilizing the kitchen in the villa (which alas we don't do enough...)

[Ian]

Thank you very much for your advice on all this, its appreciated!

We will be going for 14 days, just the 2 of us. And 4/5 days we will be visiting Non Disney parks. I think because of what you said that the QSDDP is more attractive because of its free (just had to hotel upgrate).

But I will now check the menus as you suggested and see if it works out at a good value.

[doconeill]

Thank you very much for your advice on all this, its appreciated!

We will be going for 14 days, just the 2 of us. And 4/5 days we will be visiting Non Disney parks. I think because of what you said that the QSDDP is more attractive because of its free (just had to hotel upgrate).

But I will now check the menus as you suggested and see if it works out at a good value.

If you upgraded from value to moderate for the dining plan, you may want to do some more math - typically, at least for us in the US, to get the free dining plans we have to pay the full "rack rate" - the undiscounted rate - for the room. Depending on how many people are in the room, this could actually cost more than getting a typical discounted room and paying for the dining plan separately, or just paying out of pocket for meals. With only two to a room, the "free" dining plan might cost more if you aren't careful.